There is so much I could say about this amazing trip that I was so blessed to be a part of. Right now I can tell you, this will be a long post, but I will try to be as concise as possible.
God definitely used this trip in my life for a number of reasons. I was so blessed to be a small part of the lives of the orphans we worked with. I also met 25 amazing and wonderful people that I am grateful to calls friends. The team that traveled there, the staff that works in Russia and the translators were all fantastic. I could talk for hours of how wonderful these people are!
Group picture on the Gulf of Finland- everyone but Sasha & Yuri (2 translators, taking the pictures)
Here is a run down of the trip- the best way I can give you the details in a blog- please, please, please feel free to contact me if you want more stories/details! Thanks in advance if you read the whole thing! :)
Friday, August 13, 2010 (into Saturday, 8/14)-
20 of us left Grand Rapids and flew to Chicago. In Chicago we met up with Paula from Orphan Outreach- such a beautiful and spectacular woman! We then flew to Dusseldorf, Germany. I sat next to Chelsea B, who would be my roommate and we were able to chat for most of the flight- though we probably should have slept! Chelsea B is such an amazing woman and I was so lucky to have her as a roommate and so glad we became friends! We explored Dusseldorf, even leaving the airport (just to the sidewalk) even though we were told not to! haha, We got stamps in our passports though! Then we took our last flight into St. Petersburg, Russia!
Me and Chelsea B on the flight to Dusseldorf!
Saturday, August 14, 2010-
Arriving in St. Petersburg we met Olga. Olga works for Orphan Outreach and lives/works in St. Petersburg. She goes to all 9 of the Orphanages that Orphan Outreach works with and "has 500 kids." Olga has such a compassionate heart and amazing spirit. I wish you all could meet her! From there we took a bus to our hotel- the Mosova Hotel (Moscow Hotel)- and checked in. We ate a wonderful dinner at Balzak (?) and celebrated John's birthday (a team member). We drove around the city a bit before heading back to go to bed!
Our hotel in St. Petersburg- photo credit: John Balyo
Sunday, August 15, 2010-
The Orphanages aren't open to "outsiders" on the weekends, so we did a bit of sightseeing. First we visited the Alexander Nevsky Monastery which was across from our hotel. Our tour guide, Galina, was amazing! We got to go into a cathedral that was holding a Russian Orthodox church service- it was sad and beautiful. Then we visited a cemetery on the property that held the graves of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (author of Crime & Punishment) and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (composer of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker). After lunch at the Tchaikovsky Restaurant, we visited the Hermitage- the 2nd largest art museum in the world with over 3 million pieces of art. It was amazing. We saw original Van Gogh (we weren't allowed to photograph them), DaVinci, Rafaelle, Michael Angelo and Rembrandt. We had another wonderful dinner and headed back to the hotel.
Alexander Nevsky Monastery- photo credit: Lori Plummer
The Hermitage
Monday, August 16, 2010-
Checked out of the hotel in the city and traveled to Zelenogorsk on the Gulf of Finland. During the summer the orphanages in the city get renovations. As a result, the orphans are sent to "camps" (old, run down building in the woods) for 3 months. There they have open fields and few pieces of "playground" and sports equipment to entertain themselves. After lunch we headed to one camp that held multiple orphanages in multiple buildings. We spent time with #2 (kids 4-12) and #60 (kids/teens 9-17). We did balloon animals, face painting, volley ball, soccer, nail painting and other games. Most of the younger kids just wanted to be held and given attention. The teens liked volleyball and a game they called "Potato."
Nikita getting his face painted by Katie.
Playing "parachute" with the kids.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010-
First day of VBS. We spent the morning with the kids of #2 doing a Bible Story (creation), Memory Verse (You are the potter, I am the clay), Craft (making things out of modeling "clay") and Recreation. Then we just played with the kids and showed them love. After lunch we came back and did VBS for the teens of #60. The "Bible Story" was testimonies by Em & Paul, two of the team members and an amazing story/drawing by another team member/artist, Katie- there's a video on my Youtube- link at the bottom! Craft was "friendship bracelets" and memory verse discussed how people judge from the outside but God judges the inside. Tuesday was my roommate, Chelsea B's, birthday so we celebrated that. We also went down and spent some time on the Gulf of Finland.
Craft time with boys from #2
Some of the teen girls from #60
Wednesday, August 18, 2010-
2nd day of VBS- last day with #2 & #60. We spent the morning again with the kids of #2. The story was of the Shepard who lost his sheep. Craft was picture frames (we took a picture of each kid and tried to print with a mobile photo printer to hand them to the kids right away, but it was damaged- they still had fun creating them!), Memory Verse was how God never forgets us. In the afternoon we did VBS with the teens of #60- testimony from Jen, story from Paul. On this day we also brought the donations for each of the orphanages- things like clothes, underwear, lice shampoo, socks, combs, hair accessories, etc. We also had a "watermelon party" where we brought 18 watermelons for the kids and they just loved it! It was a sad goodbye to the kids and teens of #2 & #60. We miss them, love them and will continue to pray for them.
Watermelon Party with #2 & #60. photo credit: Greg Yoder
Donations. photo credit: Greg Yoder
Thursday, August 19, 2010-
VBS Day 1- the morning was spent with Orphanage #40. Probably the most heartbreaking orphanage we visited. #40 is for children 3-7 who are delayed or disabled. Some kids had sight issues or other physical disabilities- some even using little walkers :( Other kids had mental delays. Many had Down Syndrome. Many I couldn't tell you what was "wrong" with them (nothing, all of the kids at that orphanages were amazing and perfect in God's eyes, but you know what I mean). There was one girl who used to have a cleft pallet. It was fixed, but she was there. A little boy with glasses was there. That's it. It is amazing the culture because the slightest "abnormality" and the kids are tossed aside. Children born with Down Syndrome are left at the hospital. They are sent to an orphanage and then at the age of 7, they are institutionalized and never heard from again. The government doesn't try to get them adopted. I could talk about this for days because I was most affected by this orphanage- it was my "favorite" and broke my heart the most. We could only do VBS with 1 group who was the "least delayed." One little girl, Oksanna, stole my heart. She has Downs and everyone thought she was a boy at first. She has 2 bald spots because she wasn't picked up often as an infant. We would sing to each other and I would say "Krasyva Oksanna" (Beautiful Oksanna).
Little Boy from #40. photo credit: John Balyo
Me and Oksanna ♥ photo credit: John Balyo
In the afternoon we went to see the teens of #14. These were yet another group of amazing kids. We were surprised at how open the older teen boys were to things like the memory verse and "solarium cards" (pick a picture card that describes___ and explain why). We provided the donations on the first day to this orphanage because the director of that orphanage is notorious for not giving the kids the donations- he happened to be out of town that day and we wanted to make sure they got them. He was not happy when he found out about this.
Sasha (translator) with some of the boys from #14 photo credit: John Balyo
#14 Donations. photo credit: John Balyo
That night we met as a group to "check in" and ended up sharing a lot about our lives and our journeys with each other. We grew very close that night and became a family.
Friday, August 20, 2010-
VBS Day 2- Morning once again with #40. I spent most of my time with Oksanna after doing craft (my assigned station) with the "least delayed" kids. We mainly just played with the kids at this orphanage. They loved to be flipped upside down, blow bubbles, play with stickers, be twirled and hugged. I learned to say "I love you" to Oksanna and her face lit up :) I miss her and all of the kids.
Me & Oksanna♥ photo credit: Greg Yoder
The afternoon was with #14 and Chelsea L shared her testimony with the teen girls, Paul with the teen boys. Bonds were definitely formed here as well and it was such a sad goodbye.
Boy from #14 photo credit: John Balyo
Once again, we miss, love and pray for the kids/teens of #14 and #40.
Friday night we drove back to the city and checked back into the Moscova hotel. We at dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Tequila Boom (haha!) and it was a very sad goodbye to our amazing translators- Sasha, Masha, Yuri and Alex.
Me & Masha (translator/now friend) before we said goodbye :(
Me & Sasha (translator/now friend) before we said goodbye :(
Saturday, August 21, 2010-
Our last full day in Russia was spent sightseeing again. Though it was great to see the city, we were all a bit sad that we had left Zelenogorsk, the orphans and our translators. We had grown so attached to that place and those people.
We spent the morning at Saint Issac's Cathedral and learned about it's history from our tour guide, Natalia. Such a beautiful place! We even climbed the 300 steps to the top of St. Issac's to overlook the city of St. Petersburg. I'm not quite in shape, so I did not love the climb up, but the view was so worth it!
St. Issac's Cathedral. photo credit: John Balyo
3 of my favorite/the most spectacular women: Chelsea B, Lindsey & Em (and me).
View from the top of St. Issac's Cathedral.
After lunch we went to the Church of Our Savior On Spilled Blood. This is such an amazing place and the outside is what is traditionally thought of Russian architecture- though most of the building do not look like it at all! Inside everything was mosaic- literally, everything. The floors, all the walls and even the ceilings! Plus the mosaics were pictures of Jesus and other Biblical people, some of them familiar stories from the Bible. The idea was that no matter where you stood in the church, the eyes of Jesus were on you. Many of us girls bought rings that say "Save and Protect" (in Russian, of course). Then we went to the outside souvenir market for a while.
Church of Our Savior On Spilled Blood. photo credit: Greg Yoder
Church of Our Savior On Spilled Blood, mosaic wall.
Most of us didn't even go to bed that night because we had to have our bags packed and ready at 2:30 AM! We left for the airport at 3AM. Olga came with us to the airport to say goodbye and it was really hard to leave her. I definitely miss her and wish she didn't live so far away! Most of the group left just before 6AM on a flight to Munich, Germany (a few flew to Frankfort, including Paula who is from Texas, so we had to say goodbye in Russia- very, very sad). From Munich we flew to Chicago and then back to Grand Rapids.
Me & Olga
Me & Paula
Chelsea B, Me, Em, Paul & Jill on the plane from Munich to Chicago- I think we look pretty good considering we were up for more than 24 hours at this point! photo credit: Lindsey North
I was happy to see my parents and all 3 of my siblings waiting for me when I returned. It was very difficult leaving all my friends, who were my new "family" at the airport. It was particularly hard to say goodbye to my "roomie" Chelsea B. I am so thankful that the majority of the team lives in Michigan. Even if they are an hour away, they are much closer than Russia!
I would LOVE to go back and work with Orphan Outreach and the orphans of St. Petersburg. If God provides the money, I would do their month-long internship next summer. I particularly would like to go back to orphanage #40.
It has been really hard being back home. My heart has definitely changed and this trip confirmed that I need to do something that I feel is meaningful and helps change the world in a positive way. After some depression the first week (going from people 24/7 to a lot of alone time really threw me off!) I am starting to adjust to daily life, but my life will never be the same. I feel significant changes in me already and I now have such amazing, life-giving friends that there was no way I couldn't be changed.
Since being home, I am once again looking into ways to make a difference in community/the world- I'd love to do the Peace Corps, but I don't have a degree... yet. I've also expressed interest in volunteering for my church with the younger kids and have expressed interest in volunteering for the Down Syndrome Association of West Michigan- in honor Oksanna and all the Downs kids in Russia. As hard as it was to raise funds and as much as my heart broke when I left, I hope that God has more missions in store for my life. It's heartbreaking but life-giving at the same time. I couldn't have asked for a better experience.
If you are interested in supporting me for future mission trips, please contact me a curnowj@gmail.com. I don't have anything planned yet, but like I said, if God provides the support, I will do His work!
Also, I have upload a selection of my pictures and videos on my facebook. If you are not friends with me on facebook, you can request my friendship. However, I do have all my photos and some photos from some of my teammates on Webshots. I also have a Youtube page with my videos. The videos of my teammates are listed as "favorites" on my Youtube page. The links are below. Please also visit Orphan Outreach's website and consider donating to their efforts. And please, let me know if you have any questions or would like to hear additional stories- I have plenty! :)
Pictures on Webshots-
http://community.webshots.com/user/genzaichi
Videos on YouTube-
http://www.youtube.com/user/genzaichi
Orphan Outreach-
http://www.orphanoutreach.org/
Once again, thank you to everyone who supported me financially, with material donations and most importantly with prayer. Please continue to pray for me and my team, that our hearts continued to be moved and changed by this experience. Please pray for Orphan Outreach that their work and efforts continue to help orphans all over the world. Please pray for the orphans of Russia, particularly St. Petersburg and especially the orphanages we visited. Please pray that the orphans remember the love we gave, the Love of Jesus Christ, and seek that out in the people they meet as they continue on in life.
God Bless,
♥♥ Janessa
